Buzzer Renews NBA, WNBA Deals For Viewing Out-Of-Market Games On Mobile Phones

Buzzer, a mobile platform for live sports aimed at young people, has renewed its deals with the NBA and WNBA to allow fans to watch out-of-market games via their League Pass streaming services.

The deals are for multiple years, although Buzzer would not disclose how many years they are for or any financial details. Buzzer paid a rights fee, and the company and leagues will share in the revenue generated when people pay for access to games via Buzzer. The agreements are only for the regular season and do not include the playoffs.

Buzzer, which was founded in 2020, previously had a deal with the NBA for the final six weeks of the 2020-21 season and the entire 2021-22 season and with the WNBA for the final 3 ½ weeks of the 2021 season and for the entire 2022 season.

By downloading Buzzer’s iOs or Android apps, fans can get alerts on their mobile phones when games are being played and when there are close scores or other events that may be of interest. They can then pay as little as 99 cents to watch the fourth quarter and overtime of games and up to $5.99 for a full game. They can also purchase full access to the NBA League Pass, which costs $99.99 for the entire season without commercials, and the WNBA League Pass, which costs $24.99 for the 2022 season that ended last month.

As of now, Buzzer only offers in-app purchases for NBA and WNBA out-of-market games. Buzzer founder and chief executive Bo Han, a former Twitter executive, said the company hopes to announce agreements with other leagues in the coming months, although nothing has been finalized.

“Buzzer has proven to be successful at reaching next generation fans, and the partnership renewals with both the NBA and WNBA are a testament to Buzzer’s unique approach to driving an incremental audience who aren’t otherwise tuning into traditional television,” Steve Pagliuca, a Boston Celtics co-owner and investor in Buzzer, said in a statement. “For a two-year-old startup, it’s incredible affirmation and I’m looking forward to seeing how Buzzer will continue to innovate and roll out features that bring mobile-first basketball fans back to the live window.”

In June, Sportico reported that Buzzer had recently laid off 20% of its staff and was looking to raise at least $20 million in funding. The company, which now has 42 full-time employees according to Han, raised a $4 million seed round in March 2020 and a $20 million Series A round in March 2021, which was led by Sapphire Sport and Canaan Partners.

Michael Jordan, the former NBA superstar who is now the Charlotte Hornets’ majority owner, is an investor in Buzzer. Numerous athletes have invested in Buzzer, too, including Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu, tennis player Naomi Osaka and hockey stars Auston Matthews and Connor McDavid.

Han said Buzzer plans on completing another funding round sometime next year, but he would not say how much money the company is looking to raise. He acknowledged that it has become much more difficult for startups to raise money this year.

“The market dynamics have shifted quite a bit as everyone has seen and experienced,” Han said. “The macro has definitely changed. What is important for us is that our mission has not changed, our vision for the product has not changed, the audience that we want to cater to has not changed.”

He added: “This just requires us to be far more disciplined and focused and execute in the vision that we all believe in.”

Before founding Buzzer, Han was the director of live content at Twitter, where he negotiated deals with professional sports leagues to stream their games on the platform. Han, who has an undergraduate degree from Cornell and an MBA from Columbia, said he launched Buzzer because he noticed young sports fans did not watch as many full games as older fans but were more interested in short-form video such as highlights.

“That becomes a very problematic trend because live programming and live sports are the heartbeat of this entire industry and this entire business,” Han said. “You need to have the next generation consume some of it.”

In addition, young fans are also typically glued to their mobile phones searching social media and the internet, so Buzzer was created as a mobile platform that those fans could easily access. For instance, if the 76ers and Lakers are tied in the fourth quarter, fans of those teams who are not watching on television may still be willing to pay to access the game via Buzzer.

“The goal here is how do we become a bridge to the next generation and how do we address an audience that is not addressed by television,” Han said. “You have an entire generation, specifically Gen Z, that is very much mobile-first. Mobile is the first device they grew up on as opposed to (older people) who grew up with the TV first. In a lot of ways, it’s optimized for a device that the next generation engages with and uses.”

Besides the NBA and WNBA deals, Buzzer also has partnerships with DAZN and FanDuel. The DAZN deal, which was announced in February, was Buzzer’s first with a streaming platform. It involves Buzzer distributing live moments from boxing matches DAZN airs with the goal of people watching the clips and signing up for DAZN.

With the FanDuel partnership, fans who bet on NBA or WNBA games through FanDuel are alerted to watch them via Buzzer. For instance, if someone bets money on a 3 ½-point spread and the game is within four points in the fourth quarter, they may be interested in watching the rest of the game via Buzzer. FanDuel’s odds are integrated into the Buzzer app, and ads for Buzzer appear in FanDuel’s app.

“We look at our partnership with FanDuel as one of the user engagement tools for NBA and WNBA games,” Han said. “As we broaden our live sports portfolio, our partnership with FanDuel will deepen, but at the current moment it’s how we notify fans about moments in NBA and WNBA games.”

He added: “We’re not a betting operator, but we want to be the destination to watch your bets play out live. It’s more about understanding the activity off of Buzzer so that we can create tailored discovery mechanisms for you….It’s about understanding the customer, what they’re interested in and how do we create timely notifications that are curated and tailored to that individual sports fan .”